Second Impression – First Drive;
Installed G-Hub, connected Pedals and Power to Wheel, connected Wheel to PC, powered it up and G-Hub immediately welcomed me to all things G-Pro. Fiddled around a bit getting to know G-Hub, wheel set to 11nm while on PC was way too strong for my arms these days but I left it there, guided by advice from
@Oshawa-Joe , and would adjust the in game FFB Torque to suit. Went to the pedal screen and fiddled with those settings some. 100% on the load cell was impossible, 1% was lame. I went through several iterations before I settled initially on 15%. Apparently, me muscles, being on their 62nd lap around the sun, are not prepared to deal with this gear at anywhere near full strength. Factory spring and elastomers still in cylinder. Accelerator pedal feels much stiffer and butt tons more travel than the 29. Clutch feels fine the way it is and, since I won’t likely be using it much, at least until Logitech offers an H-Gate shifter, not really all that concerned with tweaking it to suit. Set the wheel to recommended spec as shown
here for GT7.
Took my trusty ’16 Camaro 598.91PP out to Tokyo. I have 6,742 miles on this car at that grind race (minus the 2 races I’ve done with it on the Pro, all have been with the 29) and, I own a ‘15 5th Gen IRL, with over 80K on the clock, for comparison. Granted, I don’t drive it anywhere approaching as hard I do in game but, I have done about 4 runs auto-cross, 4 runs down the ¼ mile and 4 20+- minute sessions around
NCM Motorsports Park back in ’16 & ’17.
Dropped the FFB Torque to 4 from 8 and the FFB Sensitivity from 10 to 5. Don’t really want this thing to tear my 11 year old modded
Wheelstand Pro to shreds. Took me a couple three tries to get somewhat accustomed to the wheel’s new level of FFB. It was considerably heavier in my hands, compared to the 29. I also had farther to reach to the pedals, since I mounted those about 3” farther back on the stand. The bar and bolt used to hold the G29 pedals in place appears to work admirably holding the Pro set.
Been a long time since I’ve lost one of these races but I did finish 2nd, right beside Kokubun. Aside from the FFB level, there was no “Wow this is crazy better!” moment during the race. Finished wondering how I could tell if “Trueforce” was actually enabled and how I would tell if it was or was not. Began questioning the perspicacity of the decision to upgrade.
Third Impression – Second drive and the “Wow!” moment.
Later in the day, after lunch and a Christmas gift wrapping session with the wife, I got hooked up with one
@Marcus Garvey, who has owned a G-Pro for several months now. We were, ostensibly, practicing for his
Holiday Event, running under the
SNAIL banner. Ulterior motives on my end were to pick his brain for tips, tricks and tweaks for the new gear. He didn’t seem to mind, and in fact had made the offer to do just that, after I’d mentioned I’d ordered it.
The first thing we discovered was, I had the output Trueforce uses turned off in game. Since I’d never planned to use the DS or VR controllers to ever drive in GT7, I’d shut off controller vibration 2 years ago and hadn’t given it any thought since then. Got that turned on and the strength of it set to 100, jumped back into that old Jaguar and the WOW moment hit. It kept on hitting too. What a difference! Motor vibrations, tires, curbs, all of it! O to the M & G! Little rumble strips felt little, big ones felt big, wheel traction chatter was in there too. The Jaguar at Goodwood, the MB 196 at Watkins and finished off the night at Brands in the DB3S. With a few short breaks, here and there, it was probably the longest batch of driving I’ve done yet in GT7+VR. It was actually enough to make me feel the strain from the new gear and I was tired and not particularly feeling very spry by 9:30P and decided to hit the rack. Earliest I’ve been to bed on a Saturday night since I can’t remember when.
I’ve noticed, when I go to bed so early, I wake equally early. Was awake at 5AM this morning. Had to be quiet so as not to disturb the better half so piddled around on my PC for an hour or two, getting screenshots of settings to put in the spreadsheet I’m building and have available if any wants a peek. Got bored around 8AM, turned the stereo down way low, pulled on the VR and audio headset and ran off another Tokyo in the Camaro with Trueforce working. Another batch of WOW moments. I could actually feel motor vibrations at the pedals. Me and the Pro still got some acclimatin’ ta’ do, it would appear, as I only finished in first by a shade over 3 seconds. Used to be I’d have 10 to 20 seconds on 2nd place.
Ran off a Gr4 race with some random folks who joined the room I opened to see how a car I’ve been prepping for
another SNAIL Series I may get to run my first race on the 10th of January. Another WOW moment in how these cars with aero load up the wheel once the aero weight kicks in on the front end and pretty much lightens to almost nothing under about 30MPH. Just as I expect it should do.
Just got in those “additional reinforcement” parts I mentioned in an earlier post here and have installed the first and most critical of those earlier and have yet to try that out. Only concern now is that Trueforce will vibrate my desk apart. That would suck some big giant donkey balls. Got one more “reinforcement” mod to do. Will need some more hardware before installing that one though.
May post some pictures of this journey thus far. Will put it all under a spoiler tag though.
TLDR; This is a quantum leap over the G29. Trueforce is a game changer.
Thanks to
@LOGI_Rich,
@Oshawa-Joe,
@Marcus Garvey and everyone who posted their thoughts and settings here.
My settings progress thus far;
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